2019 Gary Andrews International Fellow

Baroness Sally Greengross OBE (UK)

Baroness Sally Greengross has been a crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords since 2000 and Co-Chairs four All-Party Parliamentary Groups: Dementia, Corporate Social Responsibility, Continence Care and Ageing and Older People. She is the Vice Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Choice at the End of Life, and is Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Equalities. Sally is also Chair of the cross-party Intergenerational Fairness Forum. Sally is Chief Executive of the International Longevity Centre – UK; was Co-President of the ILC Global Alliance from 2010-17 and is now their Special Ambassador; and was a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission from 2006-12.

Baroness Greengross was Director General of Age Concern England from 1987 until 2000. Until 2000, she was joint Chair of the Age Concern Institute of Gerontology at Kings College London, and Secretary General of Eurolink Age. She is an Ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society, SilverLine and HelpAge International.

She is President of the Pensions Policy Institute and the Association of Retirement Housing Managers; Honorary Vice President of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, a Vice President of the Local Government Association and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries.

Sally holds honorary doctorates from nine UK universities. Her work on ageing has been recognised by the UN Committee on Ageing and she received an outstanding achievement award from the British Society of Gerontology as well a British Geriatric Society Medal. Sally was UK Woman of Europe in 1990 and has been an Ambassador for the Prince of Wales supporting responsible business practice.

Sally was highlighted as a good role model for older people in The Guardian, along with the Queen, Joanne Lumley, David Attenborough and Helen Mirren.

David Wallace Address 2019

Prof Andrew Byrnes

Andrew Byrnes is Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, where he served as Chair of the Australian Human Rights Centre from 2005 to 2017. He teaches and writes in the fields of public international law, human rights, and international criminal/humanitarian law. His work includes publications on women’s human rights, gender and human rights, United Nations human rights treaty bodies, national human rights institutions, economic and social rights, peoples' tribunals and international law, and the incorporation of human rights standards in domestic law. He has previously taught at the University of Sydney, the University of Hong Kong and the Australian National University. With Gabrielle Simm he recently published the edited collection Peoples’ tribunals and international law (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and forthcoming publications includes chapters on the work of the UN Committee on the Discrimination against Women and the UN Committee against Torture, as well as the protection of economic and social rights through the parliamentary process

Andrew served as President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law from 2009 to 2013 and is currently a member of the Executive Council of the Asian Society of International Law. From November 2012 until September 2014 he was external legal adviser to the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. He serves on the Board of the Diplomacy Training Program, the NSW Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee, and the Advisory Committee of the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific. He has also served as rapporteur of the International Law Association’s Committee on International Human Rights Law and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Alliance on the Rights of Older Persons from 2017 to 2018.

Andrew was involved in the drafting of the CEDAW Optional Protocol, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and is working with the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions in current UN discussions about a possible new convention on the human rights of older persons. He has also worked for the Australian Attorney-General’s Department and the Hong Kong Attorney General’s Chambers and has acted as consultant to a number of international organisations. In 2018 he was awarded the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Law Award.

Ashton Applewhite (USA)

Ashton Applewhite is the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism. In 2016, she joined PBS site Next Avenue’s annual list of 50 Influencers in Ageing as their Influencer of the Year. Ashton has been recognised by the New York Times, the New Yorker, National Public Radio, and the American Society on Ageing as an expert on ageism. She blogs at This Chair Rocks, has written for Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and is the voice of Yo, Is This Ageist? Ashton speaks widely, at venues that have ranged from universities and community centres to the TED mainstage and the United Nations. She is a leading spokesperson for a movement to mobilize against discrimination on the basis of age. We are very honoured to have Ashton present her thoughts on ageing.

Margaret Gillis

Margaret is the founding President of the International Longevity Centre Canada, a member of the Global Alliance of International Longevity Centres. This is an international consortium with member organizations in 17 countries dedicated to the needs and rights of older people. The Global Secretariat is located in the United States. An award winning executive and innovative leader, Margaret played a key role in establishing the Age-friendly Community program, this program is now in over 900 Canadian communities and 26 countries worldwide. Other career highlights include a joint government-NGO project to protect seniors in disasters, which was recognized by Her Majesty the Queen..

Prof Teppo Kröger (FIN)

Teppo Kröger is Professor of Social and Public Policy at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He leads the Center of Excellence on Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare), which is funded by the Academy of Finland 2018-2025. CoE AgeCare consists of four research teams and approximately 40 researchers, who examine ageing and care from the perspectives of policy-making, agency, health, housing, migration, digitalization etc (see, www.jyu.fi/agecare).
Teppo Kröger’s own research analyses care policy from local, comparative and global perspectives. In his research, he integrates different theoretical and empirical approaches from social policy, social gerontology, disability studies, family sociology and governance studies. He has drafted new conceptual perspectives for the analysis of care policy, including the concepts of welfare municipality, weak universalism, dedomestication, demographic panic, care capital and care poverty.

Prof Kathy Eagar

Professor Kathy Eagar has over thirty five years experience in the health, aged and community care systems, during which she had divided her time equally between being a clinician, a senior manager and a health academic. She has authored over 350 articles, papers and reports on management, quality, outcomes, information systems and funding of the Australia and New Zealand health and community care systems.

Prof Leon Flicker AO

Professor Flicker is a key opinion leader in health and ageing and has been published in more than 390 peer-reviewed articles, and cited on over 18,000 occasions. He has received considerable support from the NHMRC through continuous project grants since 1996.
He has conducted numerous studies about frailty and successful ageing and also researched the health needs of older Indigenous Australians. This latter research led to the validation of the Kimberley Indigenous Cognitive Assessment (KICA) tool, which is used throughout Western Australia, the Northern Territory and far North Queensland.
Through the use of the KICA tool, researchers have discovered a five-fold increase in the rate of dementia compared to non-Indigenous Australians. This population continues to be studied to help determine the modifiable risk factors to help prevent cognitive impairment and frailty in older Indigenous people.
Professor Flicker’s work on a pilot model of community services in the Kimberley was judged to be one of the 10 best National Health and Medical Research Council research projects in 2012. The impact of this research is continuing to be felt in these regional areas.

David Sinclair

David has worked in policy and research on ageing and demographic change for 15 years. David has a particular interest in older consumers, active ageing, financial services, adult vaccination, and the role of technology in an ageing society. He has a strong knowledge of UK and global ageing society issues, from healthcare to pensions and from housing to transport.
David has presented on longevity and demographic change across the world (from Stafford to Seoul and Singapore to Stormont). In 2016 David won the Pensions-Net-Work Award for “The most informative speaker 2006-2016”. He is frequently quoted on ageing issues in the national media.
David the former Vice-Chair of the Government’s Consumer Expert Group for Digital Switchover. For ten years he chaired a London based charity (Open Age) which enables older people to sustain their physical and mental fitness, maintain active lifestyles and develop new and stimulating interests.
Prior to joining the ILC-UK, David worked as Head of Policy at Help the Aged where he led a team of 8 policy advisors. David has also worked for environmental and disability organisations in policy and public affairs functions. His other experience includes working as a VSO volunteer in Romania, in UK Parliament to MPs’, and with backbench committees.

Catherine Barrett

Dr Catherine Barrett has over 30 years working with older people as a clinician, educator, researcher and capacity builder. Catherine is the Founder and Director of Celebrate Ageing, a self-funded program challenging ageism and building respect for older people. The Celebrate Ageing Program utilises art and narrative based approaches to create social and policy change. The program includes The OPAL Institute, addressing the sexual rights of older people; The Museum of Love, exploring the importance of love in the lives of people living with dementia; and Alice’s Garage, empowering LGBTI elders and promoting healthy LGBTI ageing. Catherine is the 2019 AAG Glenda Powell Travelling Fellow.

Russell Westacott

Russell has 30 years experience of working in non-government-organisations (NGOs). He worked for several organisations in the HIV sector where he worked for both state and national organisations. Russell has implemented projects in each state and territory in Australia in collaboration with local partners. He has worked on international projects in the South Pacific, South Africa and has represented Australian community-based groups at the United Nations on a number of occasions. During the period 2001 to 2005 Russell was Associate Director at the Institute of Gay Men’s Health based in New York City’s largest philanthropic and government funded NGO. Russell has overseen programmatic responses to diverse and hard to reach communities during successive management roles over the past 20 years. He has presented at a range of national conferences in both Australia and the US and has delivered papers at international conferences. Russell has an interest in the human rights and social justice of people and communities that are often marginalised. Russell has studied at the University of NSW in Politics and International Relations and Sociology.

Mark Elliott

Mark Elliott is a Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal man whose family are the Trevorrow’s from the Coorong area of South Australia. Mark is the immediate part Chair of AAG ATSIAAG (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ageing Advisory Group) and was a member of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Dementia Advisory Group (NATSIDAG) since its inception until it wound up in 2015/16 and continues to have a passion for working in the area of dementia. Mark currently sits on the Executive of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ageing Advisory Group (ATSIAAG) which is supported by the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG). Mark was awarded Honorary Life membership in 2018 in recognition of his leadership as the inaugural Aboriginal Chair of ATSIAAG. Mark works part time for the Menzies School of Health Research as a Project Coordinator.

Alison Rahn

Alison is a social gerontologist and recipient of an inaugural AAG Strategic Research Grant in 2018. She is a senior research officer in the Caring at End of Life Team at Western Sydney University and adjunct research fellow in sociology at the University of New England. As a former sex therapist, she is passionate about shining a light on social ‘taboos’ and starting the difficult-but-necessary conversations that tend to be avoided. Her research is focused on social justice issues affecting older adults’ intimate relationships in health and aged care settings as well as social approaches to aged care and end of life. In 2018, she was awarded the Chancellors Doctoral Research Medal by the University of New England for her thesis, “Behind closed doors: Exploring ways to support partnered baby boomers’ coupledom in residential aged care settings”.

Graham Aitken

Graham is current AAG ATSIAAG Co-Chair. GRaham is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Aboriginal Elders and Community Care Services Inc. (AECCS) and the Treasurer of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation Community Transport Network. AECCS is the largest aged care service provider for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders in Adelaide and South Australia. Prior to his current role, Graham worked for over 15 years with various Commonwealth and State Government Departments on programs specifically designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In his last position in Government, Graham was responsible for the administration and funding for all the former Aboriginal Home and Community Care (HACC) services and programs across South Australia. Graham completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Adelaide’s Flinders University as a mature aged student, with majors in International Business and Human Resource Management and a minor in Business Economics. Graham was also a member of the former Ageing Consultative Committee and the Ageing Expert Advisory Group that provided high level advice and information to the former Minister for Ageing and the Department of Health and Ageing. Graham has a passion and commitment to ensure that during the current Aged Care Reforms, all Elders have access to reliable and consistent aged care services, no matter where they might live.

Roslyn Malay

Roslyn is the current AAG ATSIAAG Co-Chair. Ros is a Yurriyangem Taam Kija woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She grew up in Halls Creek and is well known and respected across the region and lives in Broome, Western Australia. She has a passion for working in the area of Aboriginal ageing, particularly in the remote community setting. Ros is a researcher working as a Project Officer with the University of Western Australia, WA Centre for Health and Ageing. She is currently testing an empowerment intervention addressing the needs of unpaid family carers. Ros is committed to facilitating knowledge exchange of Aboriginal culture to non-Aboriginal people and has helped increase the awareness of dementia and cognitive impairment in remote communities in the Kimberley

Dr Gávi Ansara

Dr Gávi Ansara has a PhD and MSc in Psychology from the University of Surrey in England, a Master of Counselling (Monash), and completed Gilead Downs Family Therapy Centre’s two-year Advanced Clinical Training Program in Family Therapy accredited by the Australian Association of Family Therapy (AAFT). He is an internationally recognised psychotherapist, clinical educator, policy consultant, and psychological researcher. Dr Gávi is a Registered NDIS Provider and a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Level II (CCTP-II) recognising specialised knowledge in Complex Trauma & Dissociation. He received the American Psychological Association's Transgender Research Award for his original and significant peer-reviewed research on young people’s genders, the UK Higher Education Academy's National Psychology Postgraduate Teaching Award for excellence in teaching psychology, and the University of Surrey Vice Chancellor's Alumni Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions to international human rights and social justice. He has over 15 years of polycultural, Anti-Oppressive Clinical Practice experience working therapeutically with people of all ages who have marginalised lived experiences in outpatient, inpatient, and community settings around the world.

Theresa Flavin

Theresa Flavin was diagnosed with younger onset dementia seven years ago at the age of 45. Theresa has five children, the youngest of whom is now 14 years. Theresa is employed as a ‘Lived experience’ associate consultant with HammondCare’s Dementia Centre and provides input into various projects and their everyday work principles, ensuring the voice of people living with dementia is valued and heard.
Theresa contributed to the Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre ‘Supported decision-making in dementia’ project, run by Dr Craig Sinclair, University of Western Australia.

Prof Frank Bongiorno

Frank is the author or co-author of four books and many scholarly articles and book chapters on Australian history. The Sex Lives of Australians: A History (2012), won the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Book of the Year and was shortlisted in the Australian History category of the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award and the New South Wales Premier’s History Award. The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia (2015) also won ACT Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Ernest Scott Prize, the New South Wales Premier’s History Award and the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) Book Prize, and longlisted for the Colin Roderick Award.